I passed on my copy of Bessler's 'Das Triumphirende' to a fellow Bessler admirer, David, with some regret, but pleased that he also has an interest in this particular copy. Inside the frontispiece is a label which reveals that the book came from the library of Emmy Destinn, a world famous Czech opera singer (1878 - 1930). Destinn's close links with the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in London are shared by David, a fine violinist with the same company.
Destinn's talents were many and varied - and not only musical. She also wrote plays, novels, short stories, librettos, and poetry; painted on canvas and porcelain; and translated and composed songs. She wrote her first play at the age of 16, and by 18 had followed that with three more. She spoke five languages fluently and wrote her literary work in Czech and German. But David had the same questions as I had - how did she come to own this particular book?
It seems that at the peak of her career she bought the beautiful castle at Stráž nad Nežárkou in Southern Bohemia. Since she moved in, in 1914, Destinn furnished the castle with a great collection of art, antiques and books on all subjects, bought while touring the world. One might be tempted to think that she acquired a copy of Das Tri during her travels, but in my opinion it is more likely to have been collected by the previous owner, Baron Adolf Franz Leonhardi, a man with a keen interest in the occult who held a number of seances at the castle. He accumulated a huge library of esoteric books, many on the subject of hermeticism and alchemy as well as freemasonry.
If the book was acquired by Leonhardi then it may be that he was aware of certain traditions attached to Bessler's books. I have never accepted that I was the first and only person to discover the existence of the pentagrams and hence the other coded items included in the books. If others were aware of secrets within the books and made their own interpretations of the mysterious features of the double portraits, for instance, then they may have recorded their findings somewhere or corresponded with others to share their knowledge. In some archive, museum or private collection there may well be a record of these findings.
It's fun to speculate but I don't want to start down the slippery slope of conjecture - and without evidence there is nothing to base an opinion on. I merely pass on my thoughts for entertainment purposes!
JC
@ JC
ReplyDeleteEmmy was certainly a very talented lady. She probably found DT when she moved in and read it out of curiosity. Many people used to indicate that they had finished reading a book by putting their name in it afterwards.
Yes, all very entertaining.
BTW, have you found the pentagram in the second portrait yet?
A talented and no doubt intelligent person indeed. I recently had the horrible task of wading through several thousands of comments on a number of fora. Extremely depressing, I can assure you, as after a mere 30 minutes one easily becomes convinced that at least 90% of humanity consists of complete idiots. Luckily I was able to automate the task at hand so I did not have to read it all.
ReplyDeleteSo reading about such a talented person, as well as the generally good articles and comments on this forum, is like a breath of fresh air!
Thank you Andre!
ReplyDeleteJC
Well yes and no, technoguy. I'm aware that the diagonals meet at precisely 72 and 108 degrees, which means that the ends of the diagonals form angles of 54 and 36 degrees with the sides of the picture - and all of that surely indicates the presence of a pentagram. But I've never been able to persuade myself that there is anything further in the picture. I have tried countless times to make a pentagram appear in the second portrait without success. If you have found one I'd be delighted to see it.
ReplyDeleteJC
@ JC
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised if you did not already find that second pentagram in the second portrait considering what a nice job you did finding the one in the first portrait.
Okay, here's some info to get you started:
Draw a straight line from the tip of the last letter "d" in the word "Wurdemird" below the second portrait to the center of that little ball located on the top of the conical lamp cover. Next, draw another line from the center of that little ball to the tip of the last letter "t" in the word "vollendet". You now have two of the five lines in the hidden pentagram. I'll leave it to you to find the other lines.
Note that the two "base" vertices of the pentagram use the letters "d" and "t" which, of course, is the abbreviation, "DT", which we routinely use to refer to "Das Triumpherende...".
I have to lay down now...I'm starting to feel a "pentamania" spell coming on! LOL!
I do have copies of a number of attempts at revealing a pentagram in the second DT potrait, but I'm not satisfied that I have it right. However I'm not convinced that your's is correct either, Technoguy. Sorry if that sounds like sour grapes but the angles in a pentagram are 18, 36, 54 and 108 and none of those are apparent in your description above.
ReplyDeleteFor clarification I'll post a copy of my best attempt so you can see how I was thinking.
JC
@ JC
ReplyDeleteI only gave you two of "my" pentagram's five internal lines and the three vertex points that define them. If you actually superimposed these two lines over the second portrait you would see that they form the top point of the pentagram and its interior angle is EXACTLY 36 degrees! When you find the other two vertex points and put in the remaining lines, you will wind up with a five pointed star with EACH of its five points having an interior angle of EXACTLY 36 degrees. This is NO accident!
I took the lines from the wrong letter, technoguy, sorry. Your angles are spot on. My problem remains the same, I can make three completely different pentagrams - so far. Which is the right one? It was the same with the first portrait, its possible to draw different sized pentagrams from the datum points provided. Thanks for your input, now all we have to do is try to get the one Bessler meant, or perhaps it doesn't matter, maybe he just wanted us to find a pentagram.
ReplyDeleteJC
@ JC
ReplyDeleteUse the pentagram I suggested. It is special because its base points touch the letters "d" and "t". There ARE other pentagrams in the second portrait, but they are not as important as the one I suggest.
The significance of these pentagrams? Well, I am VERY convinced that they indicate a particular pattern of cord interconnections that Bessler used between the weighted levers of his wheels in order to maintain the CoM of 8 weights on the wheel's descending side. In other words, after discovering his revolutionary "Connectedness Principle", he noticed that PARTS of it looked exactly like a PENTAGRAM!
This is a clue that the serious mobilists out there trying to duplicate Bessler's wheels MUST look for this unique pentagram pattern of cords when they work on their designs. And, of course, that also means that if one is NOT using cords in his designs, then his chance of success is ZERO!
Let me interrupt your conversion on pentagrams. I have a quick question. May be you've answered this hundered times but what are the original German words translated to "connectedness principle"? I can't find on the web.
ReplyDeleteThe words appear in the notes attached to MT 9, but I made a desperate attempt to read them and failed, translating them as 'principle of movement or action'. To be honest the writing is so bad you can almost make anything out of them. All I can do is point you to MT 9 and see if you can read them. I should point out that I did not do the translations of MT although I did try to check everything that was there. Some words can be made out but unless you can read every word you won't get the true meaning. Having said that I think 'connectedness principle' is right.
ReplyDeleteJC
"Connectedness" is a synonym for such words as "togetherness", "unity", "interaction", etc. This tells us that the "perpetual motion structures" inside of Bessler's wheels (that is, the weighted levers) were NOT mechanically isolated from each other. Rather, they were connected together in such a way that, as the weighted levers moved CW between 6 and 3, they had to follow an ever changing orientation pattern (relative to their particular radial drum support) that was being VERY precisely controlled or "coordinated". The control mechanism consisted of an intricate network of interonnecting cords since, unlike chains, these are light and quiet in operation.
ReplyDeleteAs I've stated in past blog comments, I believe that during each 45° of drum rotation, two weights would rise toward their rim stops stops on the ascending side while FOUR other weights (on both sides of the drum) would be dropping with respect to their rim stops so as to always keep the CoM of all 8 weights on the drum's descending side. This action was repeated 8 times for each completed drum rotation. As Bessler observed this action taking place in an "uncloaked" wheel, it reminded him of the sequential action that takes place when one plays with a Jacob's Ladder toy and this is precisely why he included this item on the mysterious "Toys Page" of MT!
Since EACH of the two rising weights was being lifted by four other dropping weights, this means that, at a minimum, there must have been 32 seperate cords inside of each 8 weight wheel (or two directional wheel's sub wheel) for the process to continue throughout a complete drum rotation.
That's ALOT of interconnecting cords, but somewhere in that web of cords Bessler noticed a unique PENTAGRAM pattern emerging and he hid this pattern in his DT portraits in order to establish his claim to having found it first just in case a rival mobilist came forward with a working OB PM gravity wheel while Bessler was "between" wheels of his own (the prior one having been destroyed and the next one not yet constructed). At the time he hide these pentagrams he was mainly interested in safeguarding his own priority and, possibly, ensuring that, if he died without revealing his secret, some future mobilist would find this very valuable clue and be able to replicate Bessler design. However, even then, that future mobilist would only be recreating BESSLER'S design and not his own.
Are the pentagrams important? They are probably ONE of the MOST important clues in the Bessler literature!!! They represent the fundamental interconnection pattern of cords from which the complete pattern was constructed. If one is working with cord interconnected designs now, then he is certainly on the "right track" and when he sees the pentagram pattern, he will know he has made a MAJOR step toward reaching his destination!
Thanks John. Where can I find a high resolution copy of the MT9 related page?
ReplyDeleteHello John,..Sorry to labor this point but I am convinced that the same mechanism was used for both directions of the wheel.
ReplyDeleteConsider this..,if the wheel is purely a toppling machine,then it would not matter which way it toppled.
I am also convinced that the apologia wheel is conveying a very important clue which could be this,..If you look at the wheel it is balanced,but if you take the two lower sections to meet the top one each side,it becomes top heavy.There we have a typical over-balancing wheel again!
What do you think?
I have an open mind on it Trev. I sometimes voice an opinion that there are two mirror mechanisms but its only speculation and I'm ready to be convinced otherwise.
ReplyDeleteyellowson, I don't have any high res copies of MT, just the ones I took off the old microfilm. Email me an address and I'll send you a copy of what I have.
JC
@ Trevor
ReplyDeleteI also subscribe to the "Dual Opposed One Directional Wheels Hypothesis" to explain how Bessler's two directional wheels worked. This, of course, is because of the sudden nearly doubling in drum thickness that appears with the arrival of the Merseburg wheel.
Also, if Bessler had a single two drectional wheel mechanism, he would have been able to make ALL of his wheels two directional which he did not do.
The problem with using two separate "sub wheels" within a drum to achieve bi-directionality is that one must find a way to disable the wheel undergoing retrograde rotation so that the CoM of its 8 weights will be pulled to the center the axle and, at that position, not interfer with the descending side located CoM of the sub wheel which is actually driving the drum.
I think that Bessler would have used a relatively simple system of latches to achieve this. They would have been located on the inner surfaces of the rim and would just drop into place to secure a weight against its rim stop. When a two directional wheel was manually stopped and made to run in the opposite direction, the wheel which had been previously "locked up" would then have its weights unlatched so that their levers could again swing free and maintain the CoM of that sub wheel on the drum's descending side while the previous driving subwheel, now forced to undergo retrograde rotation, had its latches deployed to lock up its 8 weights against their rim stops so that their CoM was kept at the center of the axle.
This may sound complicated, but it's really not. The complicated part is finding the magic lever design, interconnecting cord pattern, AND spring attachments that will keep the CoM of 8 weights on the descending side of the drum during rotation. After all, if one can not build a ON directional wheel in the first place, he is not going to have to worry about building a two directional wheel!
But, then again, if these things were truly so simple, they would have been rediscovered centuries ago. I guess the message from all of this is that if your wheel designs are too simple OR too complicated, you should distrust them. When you are finally on the "right track" you will "know' it because your design will be the perfect compromise between the simple and the complex. More importantly, it will NOT be a design that has been tried in dozens of variations over the last few hundred years. In fact, it will be nothing like any of the designs in MT because they are woefully TOO simple.